My Pain, Your Suffering, Our Past
by rwbybomb21
Summary: When Ruby grew up, her life was hell- ostracised by her family, hated by everyone. Her light came and went, but now it's here to stay. Ruby would do anything to protect that light from going out, but the shadows on the move over the horizon...they might snuff her light out...and she might not be able to stop that from happening. RubyXFem!OC
1. Crippled With Loss

**Well...a new short story that might go beyond four chapters...it seems all I can do is one shots and short stories these days. A shame, really; but oh well.**

 **So, this one is supposed to make you at least shed a tear, and if you don't then I applaud you. Don't worry; the OC in this story isn't OP or anything...in fact she becomes quite...filler-ish? Not useless, just there for plot and a little fluff...**

 **...Nothing more to say. Read on, people, read on.**

(^^^^^^)

" _The prettiest smiles hide the deepest secrets. The prettiest eyes have cried the most tears, and the kindest hearts have felt the most pain."_

 _-Unknown-_

" _I have felt pain a thousand times more than you could ever imagine; my smiles just hide it better than a mask hides a face."_

 _-Me (Rwbybomb21)-_

(^^^^^^)

It hurt. Every time a glare was sent her way, or children were hushed away from her by their hateful parents, or memories popped up of her friends dying over and over and over...it hurt. It stung, it made her fragile, cracked heart crack a little more, another chip showing up in the heart of stone she'd tried to chisel out for herself.

To protect herself from the heartache, she told herself. Over and over again she'd tell herself she was protecting herself from heartache. In reality she was saving others from getting too close to her. That day, the day she knew was coming, the day she finally gave in...That day, anyone that grew close to her would suffer her loss.

They'd burn their hearts and repeat her mistakes.

She didn't want that.

So she hid her heart beneath layers of cemented beliefs and concrete foundations with the words 'maybe I'll die today' echoing throughout her mind. She wanted to die, needed to; this world wasn't ready for her or what she could do. It wasn't ready for her pain and suffering. Not yet, not ever, and definitely not now.

As a child little Ruby, at the age of four, in her ripped and torn red dress that reached her knees, and the little, red beowolf teddy squeezed close to her chest, had a sad life. Her only parent, Taiyang Xiao-Long, and her sister Yang Xiao-Long, hated her with every fabric of their beings. She was put through hell, and each night after the beatings from her sister had stopped and she went another day without food while her sister and father sat at the table eating food she wished she could taste, Ruby constantly asked herself: "Why am I here?" Each time she did, she'd get this little feeling, this grip that tightened around her heart as she stuffed her face into her teddy and cried. She'd get this longing for a real family, for someone to heal her, to help her feel what love should be.

Each time she got that feeling, that longing, she buried it beneath her muffled sobs and shaking shoulders, each night she felt as though she wasn't worth living, she dragged that knife gently across her wrists and arms, hoping that maybe her aura wouldn't heal it. Hoping that, just maybe, her aura, a connection to her soul, knew that she wanted to die, and would just let her.

No four year old should have these thoughts, and her life only got worse from then, at age eight she discovered her semblance, but instead of pride her father beat her- for once Taiyang himself had put his hands on her, instead of getting his sister to do it. He must have figured that, after each beating, the bruises and cuts would just fade due to her aura.

Yang ramped her beatings up a notch, landing Ruby in the hospital a few times with Ruby giving them that same excuse of 'it was a bully' or 'it's nothing'.

At age nine she taught herself to fight, to use her semblance effectively, and to save other people. She wanted to impress her father, show him that she wasn't the failure of a daughter he kept calling her, show her sister that she wasn't just some punching bag, and was worthy of standing at her side instead of curled up in a corner nursing her wounds.

At ten...well, nothing had changed, though she did make her first friend when she enrolled into Signal; a girl by the name of Katie.

Katie had black hair; blacker than any night she had ever seen, had eyes so blue you could mistake them for the ocean, had hands so soft you'd think you were holding velvet. She'd confided in Katie everything she'd been subjected to, and within the two and a half years they'd known each other, Katie was her first friend. Her only friend, actually, bit it made her feel that thing she wanted when she was little- she wanted love, and Katie made her feel that.

"Yo-You know..."

Katie was a kind girl, a nice one; she knew what Ruby had been through was completely unjustifiable and wrong in every sense of the word. She hated what her own family had turned the girl into- a stuttering, fearful, scared little girl with scars along her arms and legs and a teddy constantly clutched to her chest. Even when she was ten, she had that same stuffed beowolf clutched tightly between her arms, pressed to her collarbone; she figured it was some sort of safety blanket.

Katie's immaculate black eyebrows lifted in shock- Ruby had never tried to initiate any sort of contact, be it verbal or physical, before. She would always wait to be spoken to before stuttering out her answer. She would wait to be touched before flinching and gently touching back, as though the person that showed her kindness would break and shatter into a million pieces.

"Yes...?"

Ruby's silver eyes, dulled over the years from the bright, luminescent colour they had been when she was young, was blushing beetroot red and clutching her teddy- which was missing an eye and had stuffing and stitches showing in random places. Her eyes were looking left and right, constantly alert for anyone that may overhear anything she was going to say to the one person that had made her feel love. Made her feel...happy. She wanted to stay with her forever if this was what she felt, but...how would she say that?

"I-I-I...uh...w-well..."

Katie was patient, always had been; 'patience of a saint' her mother used to say, 'and a heart of gold, too'. She loved Ruby like a sister, like her very own, like everything else mattered and revolved around keeping this girl away from harm at all costs. She understood that her life had been hell, and with her patience of a saint and her heart of gold, she'd show Ruby the world wasn't everything it was made out to be- that there could be good in a world of bad, or bad in a world of good. Katie was the white to Ruby's black, was what equalled her out to be the grey that met in-between.

"I...I l-l-like y-y-y-you..."

"O...kay? I like you too, Ruby." she thought she had said the wrong thing when she saw Ruby's face heat up even more, but Katie was smart, she was kind and patient and smart. She could read people like books, she could see through them easily like a window. She could see that Ruby was implying something else, something she'd entertained as a shallow thought once or twice; but she figured Ruby was either too naive or too broken to feel anything back or she'd be frightened of how fast or slow they'd move, and Katie would lose the girl she saved forever.

The thought came to the forefront of her mind, and her face heated up even more than Ruby's was...and then she looked shy all of a sudden. Ruby was the confused one now, but regardless of what Ruby was like, she was also smart. Not smarter than Katie, but she came close to being equal at least. She couldn't see through people, but she could see through their words, their body language- it was how she avoided being beaten nowadays, knowing that whenever Yang was frustrated or angered helped a lot with her escape form the now monthly, instead of daily, beatings she was given.

They were both silent, before Ruby began nervously walking up to her friend; this might either elevate them beyond friends, or make her lose her friend forever, which terrified her beyond belief. But she steeled her resolve, and in one fluid movement, kissed Katie on the cheek. The girl's head shot upwards and she gasped, touching her cheek, before she smiled a smile so warm that Ruby could feel her cheeks reddening more than they were and her heart pounding in her chest.

Katie hesitantly brought one of Ruby's hands, that clutched her teddy to her chest, and kissed each individual knuckle before finally purring, a golden smile on her face. Ruby brought forth a hesitant smile as well as she fought inside to keep her heart under control.

Maybe things were going to look up for her...maybe.

(^^^^^^)

They did, she felt that ray of sunshine beam through the clouds in her heart and slowly, surely, pushed them aside. She smiled more often, she giggled at Katie's jokes instead of just hiding a smile behind her beowolf, and she even told jokes that made Katie smile and laugh. Oh, that laugh, to her, was what she lived for- Katie too, but the laugh was what she hoped Katie would keep, along wit her smile.

Today was different.

She sped through the hospital with her semblance; leaving many to wonder what the red blur was that had kicked up dirt and papers form the surrounding desks. The ward where Katie was situated was just around the corner from the front desk, and after that...she dropped to her knees upon hearing the sound everyone fears to hear.

"I...am truly sorry, but you don't have long left, I'm afraid...a day at most, six hours at least."

Katie had simply waved the doctor away with a single tear leaking from her left eye, while the other locked on to Ruby and she waved her over. Now at thirteen years old, Ruby didn't tower over Katie, but she did come at least a couple of inches taller at least.

A few hours later the doctors arrived to see Ruby clutching Katie's hand to her chest, over and over again nodding with tears practically flowing from her eyes.

"You...will? Even...even with my...limits?"

"I-I-I don't care about that! You...you're the only thing I've got, Katie...e-e-even after y-y-y-you...go."

A couple of documents were signed that day, and Ruby Rose Xiao Long became Mrs Ruby Sparrow, the youngest girl to be married since about three or four hundred years ago.

On that same day, Katie Sparrow, proud girlfriend and now wife of Ruby, passed away. Apparently, being hit by a car that was speeding through the streets at one hundred and fifty miles an hour could destroy anyone's aura and leave them critical. She was just the unluckiest- the first to die form aura draining.

The following days afterwards, Ruby's scarred, cracked heart grew cold, and she kept everyone and everything away, for fear of them being wounded or killed the same way her beloved Katie was. Her little ray of sunshine had died, and now...now Ruby waited for the day something would free her, allow her to be with her once more.

(^^^^^^)

Glynda had seen a lot in her years; had witnessed a lot of innocence lost, a lot of pain felt, a lot of hatred and sadness. But not as much as the girl currently chained to the chair she was forcibly dragged into.

She still remembers the words the girl had asked- she sounded so hopeful, so happy that maybe her wish would finally come true; and she had asked an orange-haired criminal with a penchant for murder no less. "Please, will you kill me?"

He obviously hadn't thought about what she asked him, because he simply sent his goons after her...and marvelled ad how brutally, efficiently, and quickly she had torn apart his men. In the span of thirty seconds, Ruby had mutilated his entire crew, and turned to him. She threw him her weapon, got on her knees, and looked down at the ground. "Please, just kill me, please!"

Roman must have seen something in her eyes, so he simply said "I'm sorry for whatever you've had to go through to reach this point" and then he aimed his cane at her head, and pulled the trigger. She looked up, smiled at him, and when the red ball of Fire Dust sped towards her, she whispered a solemn thanks to him, before closing her eyes.

She obviously hadn't expected Glynda to show up, throw her away, slam a glyph into the gorund, and leave a furious Ruby Sparrow on the ground, struggling to stand up, as she jetted off to fight Roman and an unknown woman.

Flash forward here, and Ruby had her hands in cuffs, her feet chained to the table in front of her, and her face a visage of utter fury and hatred for the woman pacing.

Ozpin walked in a few minutes later, and as the glare shifted form her to Ozpin, Glynda breathed a sigh of relief.

He wordlessly placed a mug on his side of the room and a plate of cookies on Ruby's, but the girl continued her glare.

"You are allowed to eat, you know."

She simply shot her glare back at Glynda and pushed the food away from her, almost causing the plate to crash to the ground. Ozpin's quick hands were the only thing that saved the poor pile of cookies from being crumbled by the floor, and his face turned from a small smile to an impassive frown.

"Fuck. You."

Glynda, momentarily caught up in her anger at the fifteen year old swearing at her with hatred, slammed her crop directly next to Ruby's hand. The girl sneered at her, obviously thinking she had actually meant to hit her and had missed. "You missed, bitch."

She looked affronted to Ruby's accusation as Ozpin calmly sipped his coffee- in his head, however, he was fuming. Tai had told him that he had loved both girls equally, that each had a heart of gold, and he had obviously been lied to.

"I wasn't aiming for you."

"Sure you weren't."

"I wasn't, I swear."

Ruby simply stared at the woman, trying to figure her out, before sharply turning to Ozpin as soon as she heard his muscles shuffle beneath his suit- her ears had evolved so she could hear the slightest movements, a mechanism she trained hard at.

He brought up a scroll, and played the most recent video of her fighting. Oddly enough it didn't show the part where she threw her weapon to the ground and begged to die-obviously Glynda had embellished a lot of what actually happened. For what reason the headmaster of Beacon could ever be interested in her, though, got her suspicious. She was awaiting a death sentence before Ozpin strolled in.

"Where did you learn to fight like this?"

"None of your business."

Glynda looked about ready to say something, but Ozpin turned his head at her, and she shut her mouth instantly. The man brought his head back, and leaned across the table.

"You...have silver eyes."

Ruby, for emphasis, rolled them and glared harder at him. Her red and black hair was tied back in a ponytail that swished around as she shook her head at him. "Wow, you must be so smart to figure that out."

He ignored her, a small smile showing on his face; his offer, the one he was going to make her, she would take it- he was sure.

"How about we get straight to the point, then?"

Ruby simply threw up her hands, which she had somehow gotten unchained and exclaimed to the air "Final-fucking-ly!"

"Yes...well...do you know who I am?"

She retorted with a growled out "Do _you_ know who _I_ am?"

He simply decided to humour her. he brought up his scroll, gave it to Glynda- who searched around the files of people he had on there for some reason- and then she handed it back to him as he gazed upon the information he had on her.

"Ruby Rose...Age; fifteen...height; five foot eight inches...sex; female...notes; we'll skip those...semblance; N/A?"

"Stupid morons, think you know everything because you got people to spy on me? How old is that data, Ozpin?" she sneered at him, leaning across from the table with her elbows propping up her chin and her hands clasped in front of her mouth. Behind the hands hiding her mouth she had no emotion, but in her eyes you could see the anger, resentment and sadness that had built up over the years.

He simply sipped his up- he'd dealt with worse people before Ruby, so he knew how to handle this kind of thing. All he had to do was sit back and let her vent out her anger or frustration, and then calmly talk to her, get her to lower her guard. "Not quite sure actually, all of this was given to me by your father."

She spat at Ozpin, the saliva just missing him and landing on the table a few centimetres in front of him, which he calmly wiped away with his sleeve. "That bastard is no father of mine!" she then began breathing in and out, technique Katie had shown when she got overly sad or upset- in her later years she figured it was good for nearly all situational emotions, not just sadness, and so whenever she felt angered she'd perform the technique. "My name is Ruby _Sparrow_ , not Rose, and I'm fifteen, obviously a female; my semblance is none of your fucking business, and anything else you wanna know is probably in one of the many police reports they have around here."

While sipping from his mug, he eyed her carefully- her shoulders were stiff, her muscles always tensed, her back straight, her face permanently set into either an angry scowl or an emotionless mask, her eyes looked dimmed, her chin and cheeks had scarring, and her nose looked as though it was broken and had recently just healed. All in all this was definitely not the girl Taiyang had described to him, and with the obvious disdain that she held for her family, Ozpin figures Ruby must have been through hell.

"So...do you know who I am?"

She simply rolled her eyes again, as though she thought they had already covered this. "Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon, and no, I ain't fucking joining." At his shocked face, she grinned wolfishly, and it sent shivers down Glynda's spine- not because the grin had malicious intent behind it, or because it was filled with evil intent, but because the grin was hollow. There was no emotion behind it at all. "Now," she stood up, shocking them both that she had somehow escaped from her cuffs and shackled feet "if you'll excuse me..."

She was halfway out of the door when Ozpin stuttered out his counter-offer to her leaving. "W-What if I found you another reason?!"

She stopped at the door leading to the outdoors of the cell, where four people, differently dressed and in different colour schemes, were stood. Obviously prepared to use brute force to get her back, but she didn't see that. all she saw was the door handle that her hand was resting on. "Hmm, reason for what?"

She turned around, seeing him stand. "You obviously want to die, that much is clear from the video Glynda showed me earlier." So the blonde hadn't torn out pieces to make it more presentable? "so...what if I found you a reason?"

"A...reason? what the fuck are you saying, Ozpin?"

"A reason to live."

At that, the entire world seemed to stop for Ruby- she'd never considered finding another reason; her life was bleak as it was. She slowly turned, her face showing no emotion, but her eyes sparking with something that Ozpin had to suppress a smile at; it seemed like hope, like some form of happiness that even she had no idea she possessed. Her hands, however, were crunched up into small fists that were shaking against her legs. She looked him in the eye, the hope faded into abysmal regret, and she sighed.

"And, pray tell, how do you plan on that?"

He gave a look to Glynda, who looked confused before recognition flashed behind her eyes. She then glared at Ozpin while tiredly bringing up her riding crop. Before Ruby could activate her semblance to move out of the way of the bolt of light that flew from the end of the crop, it slammed into her forehead, and memories of her and Katie were brought to the forefront of her mind. She could see Glynda panting while kneeled on the ground, but when she had apparently thought of everything she could about Katie, there was a blinding light.

She watched Glynda wave her wand once more, a blinding light, and then darkness.

(^^^^^^)

"Is she okay? You..."

"...Never explained how I got here. I died, and now I'm..."

"...looking at you, Ruby...come on, you can..."

"...Wake up, please."

She heard that voice; the others that came through her senses didn't really matter to her, but this voice...she heard it in nightmares, in dreams, in hallucinations, in half-awake states. Hell, sometimes she heard it as a little voice in her head, a conscience, so the speak. It told her what she should and shouldn't do. So hearing it just made her groan.

Then, her eyes widened when she spotted black in the edge of her vision, and she turned her head from the cell's ceiling, to her left side, where the hand with the wedding ring Katie had given her was. She flexed her fingers, her mouth suddenly dry.

Her eyes closed and she began sobbing, while the girl who died and she'd seen in her dreams, had suddenly crushed her close to her chest.

"K-K-Katie..."

"...Hi Ruby..." The woman pushed her back slightly, and lifted her by the chin when Ruby started wheezing out 'it's just a dream' over and over again. Then, she did something that had Ozpin's eyes widen and Glynda to turn away awkwardly- the black haired girl, Katie, placed a small kiss to Ruby's lips. When she finally pulled away to see a wide-eyed Ruby, she frowned at the lack of innocence in her eyes. They seemed...harsh, muted, as though she couldn't stand to see anymore yet did anyway, like a bystander to a murder scene.

"Y-Y-You...d-d-d-d-died..."

Katie simply brushed back Ruby's hair behind her ear, and smiled that smile that made Ruby's stomach flip. No illusion or hallucination had been this great before, and none had the effect it had on her now...which could only mean...

"Y-You're...alive."

Katie simply chuckled, wiping some of Ruby's tears away with her left thumb. Ruby had missed the touch of her girlfriend-turned-wife, and so she nuzzled her cheek, almost needing to feel the affection she'd felt so long ago. "I am. All I remember is a white light, and then nothing."

Katie turned her head to the stunned Ozpin, and nodded her gratitude. "I suppose you're to thank for somehow bringing me back to my Ruby?"

He simply nodded; he didn't anticipate this! He figured Ruby had taken the name of this girl because she saw a sister in her or something- he did not anticipate the girl to have taken her name due to a relationship this intimate. This...this was something his brain was having a hard time of keeping up with, and in the back of his jumbled brain, he thought of castrating Tai when he was done here.

Coughing into his hand, he brought attention of the couple to him. "Well...it's nice to see Ruby's girlfriend at last."

Katie lifted an eyebrow, looking at an equally confused Ruby, before turning back to the quizzical Ozpin. He had no idea what was coming, but he felt his mind brace itself just in case. "We're married, actually."

Nothing could have braced himself for that, and he promptly feinted, Glynda following suit from aura exhaustion a minute later.

Ruby just chuckled darkly at the turn of events, with Ozpin feinting due to brain overload, when a few minutes ago it had been her on the ground.

Katie just looked even more confused than she already was, but shrugged and grabbed Ruby's hand, smiling when the girl's face broke out into a blush whilst simultaneously a genuine grin displayed itself on her...older features...

...huh. She had just now realised that Ruby was older than her...this is awkward. "So...tell me what happened while I was..." she cringed at the word she said next, but nevertheless she sighed when she saw Ruby relax against her. "...gone."

And with that, Ruby spun her tale of what her life had been like, and with each word Katie grew sadder and sadder.

But now, now...Ruby finally had Katie back, and the girl in question swore never to leave Ruby's side again. Death wasn't appealing anyway; it was just a white, vast expanse of nothingness. No god, no heaven or hell, nothing but white. She wasn't planning to go back to that any time soon.


	2. Animalistic Rage

**Fuck this came out fast! A literal day and a half after the first chapter! I'm trying to balance this and college work...and I'm failing miserably, but I don't care anymore- this is now going full time until it is completed.**

 **Oh, one more thing...I have the next ELEVEN chapters plotted out! Eleven! That's more than ten! If this gets completed like I plan for it to be, this will be the first OC story I've ever done...that has more than one chapter and is actually completed!**

 **Now, to the guest who reviewed me, and got the honour to be the first person to do so; dude, your opinion hardly matters when you can't even take the time to create an account- scared I'll fucking hack you or something? Wuss, man up! What you said wasn't even a review; it could hardly even be called a sentence. You may review me once more when you decide to grow a pair and give me a real review.**

 **I've been lenient with people and their reviewing up to now; I will NOT tolerate lousy reviews anymore! You either give me constructive criticism, an actual review, or go paint you bullocks red and stand in front of a raging bull.**

 **Flaming...meh, as long as it ain't too harsh or offensive then yeah, go for it- but don't do it just to troll or for the shits and giggles. Come on, kids, common sense can't have avoided our generation, could it?**

 **After all that...read on, guys- oh, and if you see a pink unicorn shitting rainbows with a leprechaun riding it, let me know where it is will ya? Stupid little fucks have been keeping their pots of gold away from me for too long! Too long I say!**

(^^^^^^)

" _When I was little, I used to resent my younger siblings- if only because they got the better toys than I did or the better amount of attention than I did. I soon realised, that because of their neglect, my parents coddled my siblings to a false sense of security whilst I lived recklessly. Only then did I realise...they were jealous of my freedom, as I was of their gilded cage._

 _-Me (Rwbybomb21)-_

(^^^^^^)

Standing on the floating Bullhead, with Signal and other homes floating by like leaves in a breeze, Ruby could feel an emotion she wasn't quite sure how to label. It felt...happy, yet sad at the same time, as though she was lost in thoughts of the past yet clearly lucid in the present. It confounded her, confused her as to how she could feel this many emotions all at once over a simple boarding of a not-so-special Bullhead. Well, not so special in the way that the Bullhead was taking her to Beacon Academy, a place she'd stay for the next four years- if only to evade the public and their scornful eyes.

Standing next to her with their hands interlocked, was Katie- holding Ruby's left hand with her right while she rested her head on the girl's shoulder, watching the clouds drift by and the scenery slowly change from urban to rural to forestry to everything in-between. It was truly peaceful, and even if she wasn't enrolling in this academy, due to her lack of a strong aura- being brought back to life will do that to you- she was permitted to stay, if only because Ozpin allowed it. The man was smart, Katie would give him that at least- he knew that, without her there, Ruby would defect at the slightest hint of negative emotion even vaguely directed towards her.

"You're tense." It wasn't whispered, but due to the amount of chatter going on around them, Katie figured that Ruby hadn't heard her; the girl was silent for a full minute, and even from her shoulder Katie could feel the _ba-dump_ , _ba-dump_ of her wife's erratic heart. Ruby was really tense, and it confused her greatly. Before Katie could offer her question again, Ruby answered.

"I am." Ruby's silver eyes were locked in front of her; despite her unwillingness to come to this school, even after Glynda had somehow brought her dead wife back to life, Ruby could admit that the scenery on the way there was breathtaking. Splendid, but she had no patience for such trivial matters as 'nature's beauty', nor will she even in the foreseeable future; it was all a hoax to her, a guess that kept you guessing until you figured out that you'd just enrolled to four years of training, only to get sent to your death. She didn't want to die, not after getting Katie back.

Speaking of...she needed to ask that Goodwitch woman how, exactly, Katie was brought back.

"Are you...angry-tense? Or are you just tense-tense?"

"...A bit of both." She could practically feel the confusion roll off of Katie, so she tried to explain as best she could- which wasn't great at all since she had such little human interaction since Katie's...leave of absence. She refused to admit Katie had died. "Well...it's like I got these emotions inside, but there's too many for me to identify, and there's so many that I don't think I want to either. It all feels...dark, yet like déjà-vu I feel like I've had it before...and I just can't remember what it is."

Katie could understand that; she assumed Ruby had been reclusive since her passing, but to such a state that death was asked for? To such a state where emotions became confusing? It was both a confounding thought and a curious idea to her. Nevertheless she had an idea of what Ruby was facing. "You're afraid."

She expected a dark rebuff or some sort of violent upsurge of shouting and screaming that she was wrong, that Ruby was never afraid. To which she'd calmly point out their past, and Ruby would probably break down in tears. What she most certainly didn't expect was a slightly pained chuckle. "I guess...I've been hiding away emotions so long...I forgot what fear tasted like." She tilted her head to place it atop Katie's, whom of which hadn't moved her head form Ruby's shoulder since the conversation started. "I...don't like the taste. It's bitter and sweet as well."

Katie nodded gravely, with a hint of admiration- Ruby had grown so much from the meek little girl she knew and loved, and had grown beautiful and, while not vibrant, certainly...colourful. She needed to rectify some of Ruby's vocabulary- and idly wondered where the girl learned such foul words- but nevertheless, she couldn't allow Ruby to be the only wise one about emotions. Katie held the title of 'wise partner in a loving relationship', and even if said title was self-appointed she intended to live up to it.

"Fear's always been bittersweet to those who've forgotten it- like a cold that you can't get rid of, or a disease that constantly comes back after it's been flushed from your system." She explained in what could only be a sagely voice, yet it held a hint of admiration as well as the often-present feeling that her very voice was smiling radiantly. It was odd for Ruby that Katie's voice always sounded as though she was smiling, even if she wasn't. For an odd second she figured it part of the girl's dormant semblance, effects that bled through, through the measly amounts of aura that she had left. But then she flicked said thought away and expertly twisted both of them away from a blonde boy that vomited uncontrollably into a bin just a few feet from them both.

Both girls screwed their faces up, and with a slow walk that matched each-others' steps as though they'd both memorised how to synchronise their footsteps, successfully avoided being covered in vomit.

A voice shouted out that caused Ruby and Katie to freeze up, both for different reasons- Ruby because fear made itself known once more, and Katie because she could feel Ruby's distaste practically seeping through her aura,. Whoever had called out to them seemed to be someone even Ruby hated or disliked, and since the girl seemed to dislike everyone and everything- with good reason, she noted- to be hated by her took a lot.

"R-Ruby!? What the hell are you doing here!?"

Both girls turned around and slowly untangled themselves form each other, and Katie came face-to-face with a girl with blonde hair and lilac irises. Her breasts were obviously either fake or just plain unnatural, because even a seventeen year old shouldn't possess them. Whilst her clothing was provocative, Katie could see the balance of protection and style the girl had obviously tried to throw in there, and oddly noted a yellow scarf wrapped around her neck. Aside form being incredibly loud-looking- and obviously loud if her voice fomr just then was anything to go off of- how could Ruby hate this girl? She seemed all smiles and happy days. If anything, Katie instantly grew a liking for her.

"Yang..."

And just like that, her liking vanished in the form of an angry scowl and sheer hatred rolling off of her in waves. Neither Ruby nor Yang could feel it, both were to engrossed in staring each other out to tell, but eventually the blonde bimbo that dared go near her Ruby grinned. She dared to grin! After everything she'd done to Ruby!?

Ruby simply continued staring, Katie noting her face had gone impassive and emotionless. Was this some kind of coping mechanism? Her last one was the stuffed beowolf she'd had, but now that it was nowhere in sight and Ruby was clearly stressed if the tensing of her arms and legs was any indicator, so she assumed that impassiveness in the face of adversity was a way to cope.

Yang simply stared owlishly, before an even larger grin split her face, and Katie had the urge to do that. Splitting her face with a good punch or two sounded good, and she did know how to swing a mean left hook, but Yang's semblance kinda got in the way of that- in fact, she might end up breaking her hand before she breaks Yang's nose.

All of that went out of the window, however, when Yang's smile suddenly vanished, like she was flipped with an 'off' switch, and she took a step towards Ruby. Katie's self-preservation instincts shut themselves off and her protective ones flipped on, and in a second she was in front of Ruby.

She knew Ruby could handle herself, could even take Yang and probably win- the thing is...she had this thing about family. Family, no matter who they were or what they did, didn't deserve to be beaten. If they were beaten for any reason that wasn't a good one- and to Katie there were no good reasons- then they were below the dirt that laced Ruby's combat boots, below the mud they'd had to trudge through to get this the airship they stood on.

While Ruby watched with growing horror, she idly spotted her left hand flicker in and out of existence, and felt her entire body do the same- a bi-product of her semblance. Being speed, she could 'flicker' in and out of any situation, and like most had full control over it. Sometimes, though, it decided to take control, and because she was a speed-demon with a love for using her semblance, it became a sort of shield. It would flicker on occasional times when she didn't have control, or was in too much of an emotional haze to think clear enough to utilise it effectively. Her semblance often took over, and when she saw Yang frown when Katie stood in her way, Ruby's senses went into overdrive and her flickering fist clenched tightly as she tried to reign in her control of her semblance.

It seems neither girl noticed Ruby's growing predicament, and both stared each other down, Yang sending Katie a cursory frown. "You're in the way, little girl- what you doing here, anyway?"

Katie almost growled at that- 'little girl' was something she was often called in Signal, before the whole 'you're dying' thing. She was always small for her age, her height a measly five-foot-four. Compared to the giants that now roamed the earth with their heights reaching five-foot-seven and beyond, Katie felt cheated by nature- she cursed every time someone decided to comment on her natural shortcomings, but laughed in their face when they realised that shorter was most likely better than taller. Nature was funny that way- it granted her a small, lithe frame, and in return she got stamina for days, speed just slightly above average, and a rather bountiful chest to boot; nothing large or overly...treasonous to nature, like the girl in front of her right now, but big enough to be noticed while not too big enough to put people off. Her chest rested in what she liked to call 'the Goldilocks Zone'; not too big, and not too small- just right enough. Well, just right enough for Ruby, anyway, whom of which she had a feeling had been quite distracted by it more than once since her resurrection.

She seriously needed to ask how Glynda did that, but on to more pressing concerns than her height and chest size.

"If you really must know, I'm here to support Ruby." she pointed behind her, noticing the flickering of Ruby's body but decided against saying anything- Ruby seemed to be reigning it in, whatever it was, so she assumed it was no big deal and was something to ask about later. "So, the real question, brute, is _why_ are _you_ here?"

"None of your business, little midget, now lea-"

"No. You leave." Yang glared at her defiantly, a hint of anger seeping into her eyes- eyes that shifted red for a second before going back to their standard lilac. She seemed to be reigning in her emotions, keep them at bay. "You have no right to go near her."

"I'm her fucking sister! I have every right!"

She was consciously aware of the stares she was getting for her outburst, but she wasn't backing down; Ruby was her punching bag, and right now...damn if she wasn't feeling stressed.

Katie simply bit back a laugh at how red Yang was- if she hadn't seen the anger flicker in her eyes, she would have burst into tears laughing at the girl's face. Instead, she growled, low and rumbling from her chest. "You have no right to ever call her part of your detestable family, _whore_."

Looking affronted, Yang turned to see a shocking sight- Ruby was flickering all over the show, her silver eyes suddenly a deep shade of blue, with her sclera an eerie shade of grey instead of white. Her entire body wasn't flickering in place anymore- it was flickering a few centimetres to the left, then to the right, and often occurred every two or three seconds. Her hands were clenching and unclenching, and her face was screwed up into a hard stare that shot daggers straight at Yang's soul. Trying to recover her lost pride, she brought her anger forth to the girl that had directed her ire- this tiny girl was going to pay for putting her on the spot, because the truth was...she didn't even know why she went to see her _detestable_ _little_ _bitch_ of a sister.

She knew full well that beating your only family aside from your drunkard uncle and equally-as-drunk father meant she, herself, was sick. She was twisted beyond repair, and she had probably broken Ruby beyond repair too. She wanted so bad to take it all back, but a while ago she came to terms that such a thing wasn't possible after all she's done.

So, she went back to doing what she does best- torment, harass, and generally give hell, to Ruby.

She spun on her heel, fist cocked back, eyes red and wide with anger; Katie was in her sight-lines, and it seems the little bitch understood just who she was dealing with- to Yang, this girl looked oddly familiar, yet for some reason she couldn't place it...oh well, maybe it would come to her after she beat the girl into a pulp.

Her fist shot forward faster than any human eye could follow- pent up rage and stress coming off of her knuckles in waves of red-hot heat. She felt the satisfying feeling of her knuckle smashing against the surprised girl's face, and felt the little bitch's nose break under the force of her punch and felt her activated shotgun gauntlets fire off a round right into the broken nose- then, her eyes widened as they drifted back to lilac.

Why didn't her aura stop the wound?

Before she could contemplate it, she looked up as she heard swishing through the air, and was completely unprepared for the fist that travelled into her stomach with at the speed of sound- hell, just before it hit her and she'd almost black out from the pain Yang swore she could see little rings of air around it! Whoever had punched her had just broken the sound barrier.

She flew across the Bullhead's interior, almost flying out of the window on the opposite side as she slammed into it- she was saved by a rather large and burly man with bronze hair and knight-like armour.

"No backing out, girly- you started this with the shrimp, so end it with the other shrimp."

...Other shrimp? Hadn't she just ruined the face of the so-called shrimp? How the hell was she able to get back up and slam a punch into whoever was hurting her when Yang's stomach felt as though she'd decided to play chicken with a train and lost!?

The boy thrust her back into the growing circle of would-be students that surrounded her and the girl on the floor, who clutched her entire face and cried softly on the ground caught her eyes. Had she really done that much damage?

"Hey, I'm sor-ACK!" she didn't get the chance to apologise for her rash actions; a blurred fist slammed into her stomach again out of nowhere, and she noted that it wasn't the girl on the ground. Through the haze of pain she could barely blink, and thinking became something she had to really concentrate to do.

Despite what many thought, she was smart- yes, she dressed provocatively, and yes she had late-night thrills with a lot of unknown men and women here and there, but she was smart enough to know that speed such as the fists slamming into her body at nearly every angle...they just weren't possible. This speed should be reserved for a fucking bullet! It sure felt like she was getting pelted by them, anyway.

That was when it hit her- at the same time as the fist blurred into her face, and she had just enough thought and control over her battered body left to dive-roll to the side to avoid it.

"This speed...it's a semblance..." and then it hit her again- thankfully, this time it was only metaphorical. Though when she dived to the side to avoid another punch, the knuckles of the unknown dragging against her collar, it had almost become literal too. A petal landed on her floor right next to her, along with a sizeable crater, and she realised just what she was dealing with.

"Oh shit."

Then she felt a fist crash right into her nose, and a voice suddenly scream in her face- she would have been terrified if it had been a whisper so no one else could hear it, but Ruby was obviously going for the 'scare and cow the crowds into submission' kinda thing.

"YOU EVIL BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!"

And just like that, a rain of fists that she didn't even see blur anymore- they just simply flickered onto her body and gave her no chance to react- poured down on her with the speed of light and the hatred of a thousand burning suns. Strength wasn't there, but even she knew that this much fists could do damage to her. if she stayed like this anymore her sister might actually end up killing her- she mentally snorted at that, and despite the vicious beating she was getting in front of an audience no less, she still had that thought at the back of her head; _'how could this weakling ever kill me?'_

She exploded in light orange and yellow, her hair catching yellow with fire in her red eyes and a feral grin on her lips. She spotted Ruby across from her, and her grin fell into a straight line at what she was seeing.

Ruby was snarling like some sort of feral animal- her lips peeled back to reveal canines that shouldn't be possessed by a human- a wolf Faunus, yes, but not a human- and her eyes were a deep, dark, icy blue with flecks of silver and white sclera, with the pupils dilated into nothing but a small, thin dot the size of a standard full stop. Ruby red cloak billowed behind her form menacingly, and she noted that Ruby's punches had actually been travelling so fast the skin on her hands began peeling itself away with the speed- blood form both her face and Ruby's bloodied knuckles was dripping onto the floor, and the entire room grew silent as Ruby cracked her neck.

Ruby spun her head, noticing that Winchester dude drag away Katie and another girl with bright red hair hold a cloth over the now silent Katie's nose. She nodded her thanks to them, silent with steely eyes, and turned back.

Yang actually gulped when Ruby menacingly cracked her knuckles, methodically going over each individual one, and suddenly, sharply, tilted her neck left.

To Yang, it sounded like Ruby had just broken her own neck, but obviously that was not true. Ruby bared her canines more, snarling like an animal waiting to rip its prey to shreds, but wanting to instil fear into it first.

It was working, much to Ruby's pleasure.

"You will pay for what you did, Xiao-Long."

Yang blinked when Ruby vanished from sight in a flicker, and then all she knew was pain.


	3. Conclusions To A Beginning

**I'm not gonna give you guys a long-winded speech or A/N, just some comedy this time.**

 **Disclaimer: I wonder if it is even possible to disclaim something. I mean, once you've claimed, can it be** _ **dis**_ **claimed? Or is it always yours? If that is the case, is there even a point to disclaimers? We're simply wasting time, effort, and words to disclaim. I mean, when you think about it, disclaimers are simply pointless- we all know who made the thing we're writing about, therefore if you don't simply search it up on the internet! I mean, what sad, lonely, pitiful excuse of a human would do such a thing...?**

(^^^^^^)

" _I used to believe that God was real, that he'd come down whenever I prayed and save me from my boring, lonely life and I'd be happy; the fact that he never did come taught me three things. One: God doesn't exist. Two: Happiness is a lie. Three: if you can't do something yourself...you are weak."_

 _-Rwbybomb21-_

(^^^^^^)

Yang ducked, avoiding another speedy straight punch to the face, before responding in kind, slamming a closed fist with fire blazing around it into Ruby's stomach. Ruby grunted in pain, flashing away to tenderly touch her sides and wince; this impromptu fight had been going for nearly an hour now, and they were fast approaching Beacon Academy.

Yang seemed to be grinning through the whole ordeal, as though this was some sort of spar that she knew she'd never get into trouble for, or a battle that she'd surely win. Ruby endeavoured to wipe that look off the girl's face.

She prided herself in her endeavours; after Katie 'died' she'd endeavoured to get stronger, and she did. When she realised she had more to her semblance than being a simple red blur, she endeavoured to discover the rest of it, and she had done. When Ruby made an endeavour or promise, she means to keep it, and right now she was promising to wipe the smug look from her _former_ sister's face. She'd long since stopped calling any of her family...well...family. Her _father_ was simply Taiyang, her _sister_ Yang, and her _uncle_ just Qrow to her. They ruined it for themselves, and she was none too surprised to learn that Qrow had been looking for her- not too well, might she add- in some foolish hope to reunite the 'loving family' and bring her back home.

While Qrow may be a 'master spy' as he liked to call himself, all Ruby had to do to avoid him was avoid a bar- it was honestly that simple. The man was a drunkard nearly every day, and it would honestly not shock her if he had more alcohol than blood in his system. While he didn't really contribute to her abuse, he did nothing to stop it either- he would be the only one to bring her a birthday present, the only one to give her a hug that wasn't intended to strangle, the only one to tell her that he loved her. The issue arose when he first witnessed her getting beaten- he must've been drunk then, too, because he simply chuckled, shook his head, and wandered off into the kitchen, leaving Taiyang to smash his fist into her face once more. The thought of him being drunk soon erased itself, when he walked in, obviously sober, on Yang wailing on her with a small metal pipe. She looked at him pleadingly, and he simply chuckled before handing Yang a different pipe- one obviously sturdier and one that didn't have jagged edges. Then, he waved her off, simply saying as he left; "Don't want her to get an infection, do we?"

Her entire family hated her for no reason, and around about when she was thirteen, Ruby had promised herself to find out why they hated her so- the answer was obvious; Summer Rose.

It was all her dead mother's fault! That woman left on a mission because Ruby, when she was nothing but a dumb toddler, encouraged her to go on it. She didn't come back, and a month later was when she realised that her father, sister and uncle all blamed her.

To Yang, Summer was like a mother to her; she always made her giggle whenever she was sad, and always made her laugh whenever she was crying. The woman was her role model, her only thing and her everything. It almost became hero worship, and no one likes to know your hero was practically killed by your sibling.

It was kind of obvious what Taiyang thought of her, but for Qrow, Summer was the woman he wished his sister was- instead of the woman that valued 'power above family, and family above wealth'. She had issues, major ones that made Qrow grow to slowly resent even baring the last name 'Branwen'. She was like a sister to the man, and honestly, with how close they were, she's surprised Qrow didn't turn out to be her father instead of Taiyang.

She was brought out of her musing by a fiery fist, and Yang decided now was the time to taunt her while she was down with bruises beginning to show. "Ha! You thought you could actually beat me? Pathetic..." Yang spat on the ground next to her, causing Ruby to wince and shakily push herself out- whatever she did earlier to make her more feral had just run out, and idly while a foot slammed into her already broken ribs, she thought it was some kind of adrenaline rush that had supercharged her semblance. It wasn't unheard of, and in fact had actually happened to her once before- if she remembers correctly, Yang's semblance gets charged with adrenaline as well, and the flames that lick around her become white hot, with her eyes going a deep red and her hair standing on end.

While concluding that what charged her was adrenaline, Ruby just barely dodged a fist blitzing for her vaporised ribs; she spat blood, the glob of bloody saliva landing in Yang's eye.

While Yang backpedalled Ruby surged forward, wanting to end this fight as soon as possible- the only reason she's been going this long is because out of the corner of her eye she could see Katie silently cheering her on; love makes you do stupid things, but in this case it was a stupid thing that she need to do, had promised herself to do.

Yang's smug grin was still there, and she growled again- ignoring the internal bleeding and ribs stabbing into her lungs, Ruby prepared something she'd been trying out for the past two years: A special attack that had actually been named 'Barrier Bomb'. The name's reason was simple really; she stood still for a whole three seconds, planted her feet to the ground, her hands out in front of her as though she was pushing something away- her aura builds up in her fingertips, travelling through her arms and legs, and just as soon as her enemy comes close enough, she strikes. Her hands would turn into fists, her aura would become visible, and she would slam her fists into the target's ribs so hard their lungs would actually implode. Well, one of them would, anyway...but it was enough to seriously injure an enemy and keep them out of commission long enough.

She'd created this move when she decided to travel through the Snowy Forest, of which Patch Island had simply named as such, because creativity nowadays was apparently dead. Fast forward thirty or some minutes later, and she was slicing her way through beowolves with a thin piece of metal that she'd found on the ground, and when that broke was when she discovered the offensive uses of aura. She had lifted her palms in the air to prevent a beowolf from ripping her in half, and just as the claws slammed into the shield known as aura, she attempted to punch it away when the aura was visible and confusing the creature- it resulted in an explosion so violent that was packed into a ball about the size of her hand, which also resulted in the creature's chest visibly caving in before erupting outwards.

Tons of research later and she realised that she was, in fact, not the first to find out and perform this 'move'; no, in recorded history she estimated herself to be the five thousandth. In essence, anyone with large enough aura reserves could learn this, but also in essence, they needed superb control over their aura- something that her speed semblance's 'glitching' proved to remind her that she didn't have such control needed for such a powerful move. This confused her, but she decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and just go with it.

Yang was nearing her now, and her fists were raise to slam into the girl's face, obviously trying to knock her out, and Ruby can see why the blonde didn't want to drag it out.

Where Ruby had bleeding knuckles and a shattered ribcage- she wondered how she wasn't dead yet, but chalked it up to her aura- Yang had much worse injuries, though she supposed that she had caused them simply because she got the drop on her in the first five minutes of their fight. Now it was simply a battle of endurance- which one would give in or slip up first?

As soon as she was near, Ruby breathed in, breathed out, and acted; her fists flew forward with such velocity that, with Yang's incoming speed, she wouldn't be able to dodge it. Her aura was pulsing erratically before setting into a simple weaving motion around her knuckles and fist, a very fine shield of aura surrounding her- Yang, though, wasn't stupid, and as she felt the fists coming towards her, Yang decided to pull her own trump card out, and actually use the full extent of her semblance.

Just as Ruby's little move slammed into her, Yang activated her semblance, wincing in pain and surprised at that- while using her semblance no attack should have harmed her, but instead whatever Ruby would do could actually kill her, and it was powerful enough that it could actually make her feel a fraction of its power.

Ruby's face faltered when her attack did literally nothing other than make Yang wince, and in a moment of desperation, raised her hands to defend her face. Yang's punch broke her lousy defenses, and she flew to the opposite side of the room.

Everything was silent when Yang collapsed form sheer aura exhaustion, while Ruby simply collapsed form the amount of injuries she had gotten.

Her first actual time standing up to her sister and it was a draw.

With a fleeting thought before her vision faded to black and her eyes closed, Ruby could say she had come quite far.

(^^^^^^)

Glynda Goodwitch was many things.

She was a kind and patient woman, oftentimes giving students just a little more time to catch up on their work, or even offering advice to students when Professor Peach- the wench that she had a rivalry going on with- decided not to be the Academy's counsellor. From these counselling sessions she had, admittedly, learned more about the dangers of being a huntress or huntsman from the students that entered and left than she had in her entire life from first hand experience.

Each session was personal to her- her students were her pride, her very being rolled into a small, four man team that she only knew on terms of names and skills. She did care, though, but she isn't very good at showing it beyond a small smile or an awkward pat on the back- she isn't a very emotional person.

Glynda was also a proud woman; she was proud of her control over Dust and her semblance, she was proud over her many accomplishments over the years, she was proud to be the headmaster's second-in-command, and she was proud to call herself a teacher at one of the most prestigious Hunting Academies in the world. Glynda was also proud of the fact that she had just been assigned the first years to teach in combat classes, while the arrogant, annoying Professor Peach- though she had to admit that Peach wasn't that bad in combat- got the second year combat classes. The third years were to be assigned 'Cleaning Duty'; essentially the nice way of saying 'patrol Forever Fall and wipe out any Grimm you come across'. The forth years simply had to gain experience from mission that Ozpin himself would hand down to them- from reconnaissance of old Grimm hives to 'pest control'.

Right now, though, Glynda was anything but the above; she was, as of this moment, angered and annoyed beyond her wildest comprehension of the two emotions. They weren't even first years yet and they were already on the fast track to getting expelled before they even begun!? She'd never heard of such a speedy expelling of the Academy in all her years.

Granted, it was mostly the Xiao-Long's fault, but Ruby's fault was there as well- she and Ozpin had been watching over the 'fight' for at least half of it, but they did catch glimpses of who started it and how. Ozpin just sipped his coffee with a loud _slurp_ sound, eyeing the battle with rapt attention. Even for him, rapt attention being paid to anything meant she should do absolutely nothing to stop it until he'd gathered all the necessary information.

As soon as Ruby began laying into her sister with the speed of a damn bullet, Ozpin and Glynda both had eyes wide and open- nobody, even with a speed semblance, should move that fast! Her changes hadn't escaped them either, and Glynda chalked it up to either an adrenaline boost that shocked her nerves and semblance into overdrive, or some sort of hereditary trait.

Ozpin nodded at the second one, and simply went back to staring at the fight. "How do you know, sir?"

He just gave the little mysterious smile he usually gives when he knows something that someone else doesn't, and sipped his coffee once more, wincing a little when Ruby smacked her sister around.

"The eyes; they're silver."

Glynda had no idea what that meant, but nodded anyway- he'd probably tell her in time, as he did with the Maidens and some woman he named 'the Queen'.

At least two hours later, and Glynda could tell Ozpin wanted to stop the fight- they were getting too close to Beacon and this was getting far too out of hand. He simply sighed with an emotion she couldn't discern, laying his cane on the floor and began his journey down to stop it himself, before something interesting happened.

Ruby shifted her stance a little, and Glynda- being the expert on Dust and aura that she was- could see what was happening immediately.

"Sir...she..."

An equally as shocked Ozpin just stood and watched as Ruby's rather powerful- and deadly- attack slammed in to her sister, and ricocheted back to her via what Ozpin could only guess was Yang's semblance. That brought the question though; why hadn't Yang been using her full semblance? Was she that cocky, or did she just have the skill to use it as a last resort? From what Ozpin had seen, he guessed it was a mixture of the former and the latter.

As soon as both combatants were down for the count, they moved in and waved the crowd away, noting how Ruby was already back up with the help of a gushing ginger girl with green eyes and Katie; something just didn't seem right about her, but right now their only priority was setting these two right.

(^^^^^^)

Five minutes later- and a whole lot of Glynda lecturing her about 'proper public image'- found Ruby and Katie walking hand-in-hand towards Beacon, small smirks or smiles on their faces and a sway in their steps; which never failed to attract the attention of the horny males around. Yang had been taken by Ozpin for questioning as to why she decided to lash out at a civilian, Ruby had been sent away with a slap on the wrist, and Katie's miniscule aura finally decided to kick in and heal the massive bruise formed around her newly-fixed nose. Though the scorch marks that surrounded and dotted both of their clothing couldn't be fixed by aura alone, so they waited until they got assigned dorms before changing- no point in putting on clean clothing if the initiation was just around the corner, was there? They could just change clothing when their current set of wares became too cumbersome and filthy.

Katie, somehow, decided that Ruby needed to relax, or 'chill out' as she had muttered to her- so, in her infinite wisdom, she steered the half-awake Ruby towards Beacon to attend the Welcoming Ceremony, and planned on laying her down to sleep- if she was gonna be in some sort of initiation tomorrow, she may as well rest big for it.

Behind them, a blonde, scraggly boy by the name of Jaune 'Vomit Boy' Arc, fell into a pile of suitcases and Dust Containers, to which the owner of said containers and suitcases berated him on the proper usage of Dust, and then shook around a cracked Dust vial.

Ruby shot wide awake when an explosion reached her ears, and started looking around frantically all the while berating herself for not actually having a weapon- the last one she had was Crescent Rose, but the poor thing snapped in two when she forgot that Fire Dust and Lightning Dust _don't mix_. The one she fought Roman Torchwick and his goons with was a simple piece of metal piping which had been serrated crudely on one side while the other cut into her fingers.

Hopefully while here she could create a different weapon- one that suited her needs and style. It would obviously have to switch into a firearm of some sort- Crescent Rose was a High Impact Sniper Scythe, so perhaps she could create a sword that doubled as a sniper? Or even a...what were they called...Kama?

She nodded resolutely to herself all the while muttering about 'a Kama that shifted into a repeating rifle'. While Katie caught some of the inner monologing that Ruby seemed to able to achieve, most of the words went right over her head. Like, what the hell did 'revolving baryonic radiation-emitting Dust Cylinder' even mean!? She did understand some parts, though, like 'titanium blade so it doesn't chip', or 'maybe make it shift into three things'. Ruby was a genius with all things Dust and weapons even while they were at Signal, but to think that the girl had somehow gotten more advanced...? well, it just plain old creeped her out, but she continue nodding along anyway- somehow Katie was dragged into the monologue Ruby was in, and with every word Katie just pretended to understand it.

That is until Ruby broached a subject she was known to be a savant in.

"Hmm. Need to figure out the ammunition for it...damn it!" Ruby palmed her head and groaned; ammunition creation was her weakest subject- she might be good at weaponry, but ammunition for said weaponry? It was like asking a blind baby to search for a needle in a needle stack- it just couldn't be done.

Her eyes moved sideways to where Katie was, who had a hand on her shoulder. "You know...I'm good with ammo creating."

And like that, Ruby's eyes widened before she slapped herself, muttering "Stupid, Stupid!" over and over again while Katie just giggled, steering them both to the welcoming area.

They both missed the black haired girl staring at them both, before silently following along.


	4. Answering Through Initiation

**Sorry for the wait, but I had college stuff to do- pretty sure I failed my last assignment, but meh.**

 **Anyway, enjoy the story, and please for the love of fiction review. I can't make this story better without actual input; leaving one-liners or a sentence telling me I 'did well' isn't a real review. You gotta tell me how I did well, what needed improving, how I did bad, etcetera and so forth.**

 **UPDATE: Fixed some of the more glaring mistakes, though I may have missed some.**

(^^^^^^)

" _Sometimes, when I looked outside my window, I'd see lights; they glowed and twinkled, so free from everything else. By the time I was ten I envied the stars and their freedom, so much so that I resented them. By the time I was fifteen, I pitied them..."_

 _-Rwbybomb21 (Me)-_

(^^^^^^)

Ruby Sparrow wasn't a patient woman, by any means of the word; in fact, she was rather impatient, and considering her fighting style relied on patience it was saying quite a bit about the situation she'd found herself in. Patience, to her, was just wasting time; when it could be spent doing something far better than waiting or watching.

So, when she noticed immediately the little 'crush' Pyrrha Nikos had on one Jaune Arc- and for the life of her she couldn't figure out why Pyrrha had such a thing for an idiot such as Arc- she simply...stared. She stared until the girl noticed her, and simply shook her head in disappointment, which the white haired girl stood next to the Amazonian-like warrior noticed. With a risen white eyebrow, the Schnee girl- if she remembered correctly from last night- asked the silent question of 'what?' to which Ruby simply tilted her head in the direction of Jaune, and shook her head again.

The Schnee seemed to understand immediately, and nodded whilst rolling her eyes at the obvious puppy-love Pyrrha seemed to have developed for the rather moronic boy. I mean, seriously, what kind of boy doesn't even notice the -obviously beautiful- girl vying for his affection in plain sight of nearly everyone else? A dense, moronic, idiotic Hunter-in-training wannabe, that's who...though come to think of it, he had the moments of sheer idiocy that seemed borderline genius sometimes, so she couldn't really say much about the boy. She didn't even know him properly to make an assumption that went beyond what she already knew about him- judging a 'book by its cover' so to speak.

Turning to her side whilst shoving the roll of blueprints that she had created the night before into her locker, Ruby spied Katie's gaze leering towards an odd orange haired girl and a boy dressed in green with a magenta stripe in his otherwise jet black hair.

She'd learned that, after her fight, the orange haired girl had helped her up while the green boy had been applying first aid to Katie's face- now all that was left was a small bandage that wrapped around her forehead, just above her eyebrows that covered up a bruise and a developing scar. It took Katie and a multitude of other girls to stop Ruby from ripping Yang's face apart while she slept, and it actually took two seniors in their fourth year, and two full teams of second years to stop her from brutally ripping Yang limb from limb when the girl turned to her and grinned.

Katie simply sighed and slipped her hands over Ruby's clenched fists- Ruby had the ability to hold grudges for quite a while, and when Katie asked why she didn't just let it go, Ruby just looked at her for a full minute, opened her mouth, closed it, and shook her head; there was an answer, but right now not even Katie would understand it, so Ruby avoided answering anyway. Less headaches that way.

Ruby's glazed eyes cleared and her head tilted slowly towards Katie's direction, whom of which was looking at her worriedly, yet with a small smile to placate any negative emotions Ruby may have been feeling. That was the thing about Katie- her smiles could calm down a raging bull if they had to. She seemed to radiate pure happiness, and for the life of her Ruby couldn't figure it out. Compared to her raven-haired wife, Ruby felt small, insignificant, as though her life had lead up to this point, simply to kill off her main role and throw her aside, focusing spotlight on Katie. Ruby, though, could honestly say that the spotlight was always Katie's anyway, and she'd gladly give her what she deserved.

"...m'kay, Katie. Jus' thinkin' is all." Her words were slurring; she hadn't much sleep last night. Nightmares about her childhood and how small and pathetic she felt back then always claimed her nights. Sometimes her days as well, though not as often and certainly not as...traumatised. She'd had hallucinations about just about anything and everything- about Katie, about beowolves lurking in the shadows only to be a small dog or a frightened cat, about everything. She used to even see Yang's face in the crowd sometimes when she walked through the streets of Vale, only to realise it was just a small blonde child that resembled something closer to herself than Yang.

"...You're tired?" Ruby nodded, and Katie gripped her hand a little tighter. "Are you going to be able to do this Initiation thing?" Ruby blinked slowly, nodded again, and gently unwrapped Katie's hands from her own when she saw the white haired girl from earlier walk towards them both. On the outside she was cool and collected, but on the inside Ruby was ready to jump the girl in a moment's notice; spending time on your own made one awfully possessive of something you deemed as 'yours' when others approached it.

"Schnee."

Weiss stopped walking and eyed the red-hooded girl carefully. Her tone was cold, emotionless, yet for some reason Weiss got the feeling that Ruby was too tired to deal with people: Which brought the question of 'who was the black haired girl next to her and why did Ruby seem comfortable with her?'

"Ruby; I have a... _proposition_ for you." Seeing the blank stares form both her and the woman next to her, Weiss tried to hold in the eye-roll. "A deal, if you will."

At this, Ruby's eyebrows shot up, as did Katie's; a Schnee making a deal? Unheard of before, though that simply could be because Weiss' father was a shrewd man that liked the idea of 'negotiations come after interrogations'. Basically, he was a man that preferred making demands rather than deals, and if the other person didn't agree or tried to ask for something in return, he crushed them. It was one reason why his company was so...stable, she supposed the word was, but it was also why his company was reaching its downfall; Faunus Rights were being enacted, and soon he'd have no reason to keep slaves mining for nothing more than a piece of bread to feed their families.

Ignoring the growing pot of rage inside her that was boiling over at the thought of Faunus suffering because of greedy racists, Ruby willed Weiss to continue; thankfully she did, and it took Ruby's mind off of murdering the next human- aside from herself and Katie, of course- that she came across.

"You see, I was going to partner with Pyrrha, as she's an old friend and obviously a good fighter...but after seeing you fight that blonde brute-" with Weiss simply saying those two words, 'blonde brute', she'd earned a small smile from Ruby that Weiss noticed and began stammering, before clearing her throat and continuing. "Uh...anyway, I'd rather be your teammate than hers, so...partner?"

To emphasise her point, Weiss brought her hand forward- for a Schnee she was surprisingly humble when she muttered 'and because you're better than me', and Ruby simply shook her head in mirth, gently but firmly gripping Weiss' hand and shook a couple of times. "You got a deal, Schnee."

"Weiss." Ruby tilted her head, to which Weiss cleared her throat. "Weiss Schnee."

"Ah..." Ruby looked at Katie, as if asking for permission- something Weiss took note of- and when the girl nodded with her smile on her face, Ruby turned back to Weiss. "Ruby Sparrow; and this is Katie Sparrow." She gestured to Katie, who waved slightly.

Weiss looked confused. "But I thought you only had one sister..."

Grinning, Ruby simply shuffled her way past Weiss and walked towards the cliff early, while Katie was left with the bewildered Weiss. She pinched her nose- while, yes, Ruby had gotten a complete one-eighty in attitude, she was perhaps a little too mischievous.

Sighing, Katie patted Weiss' shoulder. "She's my wife- we're sort of inseparable."

As Katie walked off in search of Ruby, Weiss stared into space.

After about a minute of dumbly staring at the lockers that used to be behind Ruby and Katie, Weiss' eyes finally widened, and the delayed reaction kicked in.

"WHAT!?"

To be fair on her, she'd always been raised to believe that homosexulaity was unnatural; how could yo further humanity by being unable to produce offspring because of some benign choice? She didn't take after her father in terms of extreme views on homosexuality, but she did find it to be an oddity...and another one was that Ruby Sparrow seemed barely older than fifteen!

numbly, she shuffled towards the doors, wishing that her day would go normal from here on out.

(^^^^^^)

Ozpin couldn't help but chuckle in amusement as he pressed the button on his scroll and launched Mr Arc through the skies at about a hundred miles an hour, flailing and screaming all the way- thankfully cutting off his babbling. This was what he lived for- tormenting the new youth of today was simply his way of escaping the boredom of the office, and even though Glynda would pile paperwork on him the next day for slacking, Ozpin could honestly say that it was well worth it.

Glynda didn't look the least bit amused, and stood next to her was a sighing Katie- Ruby was an open sadist, but Ozpin was a closet one? Great...At least he hid his sadism behind perfectly valid points; Katie suspected that if Ruby got her way she'd be blazing a trial of murder and mayhem through the forest with a grin on her face and Yang's decapitated head strapped to her waist as a trophy. It was a shame Ruby had changed from that meek little girl to this closed off, sadistic, cynical one; from the reports she'd read from Glynda when she asked for them, Ruby had actually been hunting down criminals, often asking them to kill her, but obviously not making it easy.

It worried her that her death had affected the girl that much, but surely something else must have triggered that? If not, then she chalked it down to simple loss of love and unwillingness to live without it- that seemed the most likely scenario, so she kept telling herself that...even though she did see the rather large scars clearly done by Grimm that dotted her body. Did she go seeking death from _Grimm_ of all things?

Ruby winked her way, nodded to Glynda, and before she knew it, Ruby had activated her semblance mid-air and flickered around like some sort of teleporting bird. Katie could admit curiosity as to how Ruby's semblance worked. Speed was supposed to work only if the person was on the ground or a surface, but Ruby was flawlessly using it to travel through the air, almost flying! It seemed so unreal...and that was when she turned to Glynda Goodwitch.

"Miss Goodwitch?"

Glynda quirked an eyebrow behind flashy eyeglasses, the sun's reflection making her eyes shine an eerie white, before settling back to her neutral green colour behind the spectacles. Her usual outfit being worn, Goodwitch could honestly say that she had style when wearing her clothing- but of course Ironwood was a massive stick-in-the-mud and resorted to insults instead of compliments, so they had a fragile friendship right now. Qrow on the other hand repulsed her to the point where she would guess that any compliment out of his mouth was during a drunken stupor, as he was far too crass to admit someone else looked better than him. Ozpin of course complimented her on her clothing choice more than once, but had also as often suggested she find some new apparel, lest she become somewhat of a 'feature', whatever that meant. "Yes, Miss Sparrow?"

"I...was curious..." in a rare display of anxiety and nervousness, Katie shuffled her feet, thinking of the right words before simply deciding to follow Ruby's example and blurt out whatever she wanted. "How _did_ you bring me back?"

Glynda pushed the glasses on the bridge of her nose upwards, and went into a long and lengthy explanation that wouldn't fry the brain of anyone listening. Ozpin was too busy looking at his scroll and humming like some sort of games-master for the Hunger Games, so she daren't hope that he wasn't smart enough to understand and his brain would melt to mush. One can dream.

"Well, my semblance resorts around the use of magic- though not in the Fairy Tale 'wizards and witches' type...More of a solid type, if you will." Katie blinked as Glynda cleared her throat. "A solid type of magic allows for manipulation over physical objects, and to an extension, their time. Ruby had a piece of you- whether that is a fragment of your soul, an article of your clothing, or something you had touched just once during your life."

Katie nodded along, so far understanding the general concept of what had happened.

"In fact, if we hadn't found her and performed it that early...well, you might not be here, and still beyond the grave." Katie furrowed her brow, and Glynda oddly thought it resembled something she'd seen a Signal student do once before. "You see, it's not something that can bring back the dead without a price- firstly it required tremendous amounts of aura, almost to the point of sheer aura exhaustion. Secondly, the person must have some form of strong, innocent aura, otherwise my spell would reject your 'reconstruction' as it where, and injure Ruby." as Katie gasped, grasping the situation fully, Glynda continued with a solemn frown on her face. "Lastly, it takes the number of years the subject had been dead away from the caster's overall lifespan."

"I was dead for nearly three years..." Katie's eyes widened, her mouth moving slowly and the words coming out slower. "...then that would mean..."

Glynda nodded once more, before turning on her heel and staring at the treetops for some sign of danger. She'd felt a massive aura spike just now, but calmed when it quickly vanished- she chalked it up to one of the students' landing strategies to survive Ozpin's sadistic launching. She was proven right when a quick glance to Ozpin's screen confirmed her suspicions- Mr Lie Ren had used his aura at tremendous amounts to slow his speed long enough for his weapons to grip a tree and allow a safe descent to the ground. Whilst ingenious, yes; it was very taxing and ergo, by her standards, unnecessary.

She flicked her eyes to the still-growing sun in the distance, and sighed once more- she'd noticed a gray hair not long after meeting Ruby Ro- _Sparrow_ , for the first time. Stress was the biggest killer out there, she mused.

Then a question came to mind, and the only one to answer it- and successfully survive her resurrection ability, though she'll not tell Katie that- was stood next to her.

"Miss Sparrow?"

"Hm?"

She had no idea how to broach the question- she'd thought up a million different words and sentences she could say, and none of them seemed to come to mind any faster than Ruby's semblance could. Her mind would run a mile a minute usually, but since meeting the speedy girl that had to ingest copious amounts of sugar just to fuel her semblance, Glynda had been feeling sluggish. She could only wonder what Ruby saw when she flickered about like that- did time seem to stop? Did she just see blurs? It was a fascination of hers to know things that others didn't, because 'knowledge is power'. Her power was her intelligence, but not knowing this made her feel oddly...dumb. No matter, she thought, may as well get on with her question.

"What exactly is death like?"

Katie's eyes widened, before they narrowed in deadpan and her face set itself unreadable.

"It's _boring_ , nothing but black."

"Ah."

And that is how _that_ conversation went.

(^^^^^^)

Weiss Schnee dodged to the left to avoid the dangerously close swipe of a beowolf's claws, the red at the edges of them hinting towards either poison or a very painful death. Either one was not favourable in this situation, but alas she could deal with it.

These creatures were nothing to the might of a Schnee! Cartwheeling to the left to avoid another close encounter with death, Weiss spun the revolving barrel of her rapier Myrtenaster and, as the blade shone red, charged forward. The beowolf almost radiated confusion as its target disappeared, before nothing but a howl of pain escaped its snarling face.

Surprised, Weiss leaped backwards and attempted to cancel her Fire Dust from erupting from the sword. She failed, so did the next best thing; pointed it towards an oncoming beowolf. The thing was massive, though, with bony plates and fangs almost twice as large as those its smaller kin held within their maws. An Alpha Beowolf, a creature that had lived long past humans to ascend to this greatest honour among the wolf-like bipeds. Usually a normal beowolf was nothing but black-as-night skin and snarling, red teeth, but these were actually _intelligent_. They were what consisted of the brains of the pack, along with the speed. Unfortunately for such a beowolf, their strength diminished over the years, so instead of bruising swipes that its fellow lesser beowolves were capable of, this one could only cause small gashes. But enough of these small gashes created in a small time period could be pretty bad and dangerous to anyone.

What made this one special, though, was how it was eyeing something behind her instead of Weiss; which actually got her ticked off a bit, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth- who was she to say what the wolf wanted? As long as it was not aiming its teeth at her, she was all good.

She looked behind her and gasped- there were only a handful of the pack of beowolves left, each one with either a missing arm, leg, or half an ear removed; she figured it had something to do with the red and black blur dashing between the gaps they made and tearing them apart with what could only be described as sheer brute force and a deadly combination of grace and efficiency.

Weiss snapped her head back to the Alpha, careful not to take her eyes off of it lest it capitalise on her momentary slip in awareness.

It did something odd though- it rose on its hackles, the pitch black fur standing on end, and it _whimpered_ \- the others got attention of it immediately, and decided that whatever the red blur was, it was enough of a danger for their strong Alpha to back away from it and order a retreat. Confused, the rest of them just followed along, in search of a new human to eat. These two weren't worth the trouble.

"Ah, I was looking for you since I landed." Weiss jumped when a hand planted itself firmly over her left shoulder, and in a moment of defiance, glanced downwards. "Ah, I see; the Arc boy is north, the way you were headed, and the Nikos girl is catching up to him."

Weiss shrugged the hand from her shoulders, but went rigid when she saw the back hair, silver eyes and red cloak flutter in her peripherals. "Now, now, Weiss; _you_ wanted a partnership, didn't you?"

Slowly, Weiss nodded, and extended her hand for Ruby to shake, to which the girl did with vigour; though that could simply be the leftover adrenaline from the previous massacre she had enacted upon the beowolves.

They both walked in contented silence, but Weiss broke it after staring at Ruby's completely relaxed form. It was as though the girl didn't even register that this entire forest was a death trap for Grimm to ambush them from any side. To be that carefree, Weiss envied her; maybe Ruby could teach her how to 'loosen up'? It could be worth it, if they're going to be on the same team for the next four years.

"So...where is your weapon?"

Ruby simply turned her head to her, Weiss noting the bored look in the girl's eyes. "Oh, you know, I don't have one; didn't I tell you that?"

Come to think of it, Weiss can't remember much form earlier; all she remembers is being told _that_ one piece of news that _shallneverberepeatedagain_ and staring at a wall for about ten minutes. If Ruby ever did tell her, it was most likely fried due to _that_ piece of information.

"Hm...Did you?"

"I...don't really know; was too tired to remember much anyway- the rush from earlier woke me right up though!" To show her point, Ruby flashed a small, yet noticeable, part of her stomach when she leaned backwards and stretched, her spine crackling in oh-so many different ways that sent pleasure coursing down her back.

Weiss simply flinched; the noise was akin to someone trying to shred a wooden stick with a cheese grater!

"Anyway, Schnee, you got anything to talk about?"

Weiss was rather taken aback by this; the girl wanted to talk? Well, it was logical for them to get to know each other beyond their names, after all- they were partners for the next four yeas, and as such it remained up to her to start this talk anyway. Weiss had no idea how to start though, so simply shook her head.

"Got nothing?"

"No, I'm afraid; usually I'm too busy kissing up to the businessmen my father drags in to our manor everyday that socialising informally doesn't seem to suit." Ruby stared at Weiss for a long minute, before shrugging; whatever the girl's issues were they certainly weren't her responsibility- -though she supposes that socialisation is the key to success in this forest.

"Well...what do you like to do?"

Weiss hesitated, but for some reason the fact that Ruby had not once brought up her title as heiress to the Schnee Dust Company alleviated her previous nervousness. "W-Well...I can sing."

Ruby's black eyebrow shot up in surprise; she hadn't been expecting that; maybe something like dancing, or fencing, or training, or even sleeping, but singing? Completely threw her for a loop. But eh, the more you know. "Really?" Weiss nodded her head, the white ponytail swaying slightly; Ruby noticed it seemed to be off-centred, and decided that there had to be a purpose behind it. She'd ask later, no need to delve into things like hair in the middle of a forest.

"Yes; I think there's a CD lying around somewhere..."

"You any good?"

Weiss shrugged, noncommittally lifting her hand in greeting to the others that had come into view; an orange haired girl attached to the back of a dead Ursa was poking the corpse repeatedly, and a green clothed boy that sighed deeply was someone she felt sorry for. To their left near the relics was the blonde from earlier- she was so crass that she'd insulted her, forgetting that Ruby was near, and smiled slightly when her partner showed approval. A black haired girl with slanted eyes and a mysterious aura radiating from her stared at the sky in surprise, and when she looked up she realised why. Above, falling like a comet was one Jaune Arc; thankfully he was caught by a blushing Pyrrha, who had led a Deathstalker to them. How magically wonderful; a circling Nevermore, a Deathstalker, and now five incompetent people were about to face them! She daren't count Ruby or herself amongst those, and Pyrrha was exempt simply because of her winning streak in the Mistral Tournament...though if she carried on with her puppy-love, then Weiss may just shift that number from three to two.

Ruby just groaned; why couldn't anything be normal? Simple would be preferable, but normal she'd take any day. This...this was far from normal.


	5. POLL! DO NOT REVIEW!

**DO NOT REVIEW THIS CHAPTER!**

 **This is a poll!**

 **Question: What should Ruby's new weapon be?**

 **1\. Any**

 **2\. PM me with description**

 **3\. None**

This poll is uploaded to my profile, so please answer there, or if you want to PM me some ideas, answer the second choice, then PM me.

Poll closes when next chapter comes out- which, by the way, is next Thursday.

I look forward to your answers!


	6. Crippled With Anxiety

**Hey guys; so, so sorry about the whole 'will be released on Thursday' thing, but my other laptop- the one I use to write plots on and play League of Legends on- is a bit broken as of late. Don't ya'll worry now, I got the poll results right here!**

 **Any is fine by me (9)**

 **PM me with ideas (6)**

 **She uses her fists (3)**

 **I'm afraid that number one wins...but number two also wins by default as I can't make my own decisions without help- so, therefore, one lucky person will be made the winner of this little poll, and have their weapon be used from now on.**

 **But first, honourable mentions (NOTE: if your name shows up here, it does not necessarily mean that the weapon will not be used, it's just I felt you deserved some recognition).**

 **I will not tell of their weapons until the end of this chapter, to ensure that they at least have some time to read this first.**

 **Minesniper: I and good ol' Mine over here were actually brainstorming about this for a while now- some of it bad, most of it good- and I have to say that the weapon we both came up with was quite...extraordinary. it won't be told here, for reasons that I'm afraid his good idea will be stolen by some of the far less desirable people on the internet, so I'm gonna keep his weapon a secret.**

 **SkyDD: An almost-late entrance to the poll, but nevertheless made it on time; his idea intrigued me to say the least- apologies if you are a female- and I felt it was good enough to be mentioned here. What intrigued me about it was that instead of 'transforming', the weapon was referred to as 'mechashifting' or something along those lines. So, in good faith, I will be using this word to describe when a weapon shifts from one form to another.**

 **A Simple Cup: Now this one was, to say the least, interesting- at first we had a talk about plot and such, then somehow the conversation shifted to that of weapons, and I was presented with quite the odd weapon indeed; not the oddest, but something along those lines. Also, for some reason, A Simple Cup is somehow grasping how my Ruby is and how she acts fairly easily; so, in order of congratulations, A Simple Cup, with his permission, will be featured as a background character- he/she will obviously message me with a name they would like to use and a character they would like to be, or if they would like for it to be used at all. If not, then my second runner up is Minesniper.**

 **Now, past that and onto more interesting news; this chapter is going to be where we see why Glynda decided to resurrect Katie, and Ruby earns herself a life-threatening injury; sound good? No? THEN GO FUCK YOURSELF!**

 **I mean...uh...read on? Heh...heheh...**

(^^^^^^)

" _...the stars, I realised, deserved no pity; they were as free as they could be, and I was trapped down here, in this cage. They smiled and shone, while I frowned and cried. I hated them. Then a thought came to me- why hate what I don't understand? Thus, my hatred for racism was born."_

 _-Rwbybomb21 (Me)-_

(^^^^^^)

Deathstalkers were something of a challenge for even fully grown Hunters and Huntresses to take down; their armoured hides as tough as steel, with their skin beneath it just as tough. Their claws, each the size of a fully grown human, could cut through ten solid inches of steel, but in the case of humans could slice them in half like scissors to paper- in short, Hunters had a very hard time avoiding them, and if they didn't then they were screwed. What really set the Deathstalkers aside from regular Grimm was, aside from their monstrous size, they were nearly downright invincible.

The deadliest, most annoying thing though? The stinger, without a doubt, without a shred of afterthought- it made fully grown Hunters think twice before engaging a stalker like this one, and with a stinger this size they would recommend either ambushing one, or running away. Where a fully grown Deathstalker made a Bullhead look like a pea in comparison, their stingers dwarfed humans, made them look puny and weak. This particular Deathstalker had lived quite a while, as seen by the various armoured plates covering otherwise fleshy areas on weaker, younger Deathstalkers, so as Ruby charged it she knew that she'd have one of the toughest times she's ever had.

Activating her semblance, ignoring the obviously worried Weiss and Blake stood at the ruins- trying but failing to ignore Nora screeching about 'breaking its legs'- she flickered forward with more speed than the eight eyes of the Deathstalker could follow. She could feel herself near closer and closer to the target, and with a flick of her wrist, slammed a fist engulfed in aura into the side of the Grimm's left claw.

It did nothing but cause the Deathstalker to shuffle backwards a bit.

"Shit, I can't do anything...wait..." While thinking of ways to reach the weak spot of its belly, Ruby cartwheeled backwards to avoid a rather nasty decapitation. The Deathstalker, in response, reared back its now outstretched right claw and clicked it twice, as though to challenge the puny human. In response, Ruby flipped it off, before flickering again, vanishing to all but the extremely trained eye- to the deathstalker it was as though she had faded from existence. It simply shrugged, or did whatever it could as a shrug, before turning towards the obviously scared group of humans near the ruins. As it shuffled forward, Weiss called to attention its large, left pincer, where Ruby was casually sitting- for emphasis, she even started to swing her legs, looking like nothing but an innocent, five year old sitting on an edge.

Sighing when the Deathstalker didn't notice her Ruby set into action; with a grumble of "I'm not that small" Ruby leapt upwards, before engulfing her entire form in aura, and slamming downwards with both feet atop the Deathstalker carapace. Everyone froze and watched in both awe and envy- even Yang could say that- as the top of its shell cracked from the impact, before it exploded outwards and caused an otherworldly screech to come from the obviously in pain Grimm.

Ruby delighted in pain, yes, but not pain on Grimm- she liked it when they flinched, or did something stupid, but the whole 'pain gets me off' thing is simply applicable solely to humans. Those without souls feeling pain...? It made her feel sad and uneasy. So, with a gentle flip, she landed right in front of the screeching, angered Grimm. A yawn threatened to break free, but she held it back-fatigue form her previous night of rest, or lack of, was getting to her. She needed to finish this.

The Grimm, however, saw the one cause for its pain land in front of it, and could practically see nothing but red- this one human had caused it more pain in thirty minutes than it had ever felt in thirty years! The nerve, the audacity! The human looked sad, though it could hardly pay attention due to the feeling of utter rage exploding from its very body.

With a roar that threatened to rival that of a Nevermore's, the Deathstalker shot its claw forward, intent on slicing the annoyance clean in half. Ruby noticed, and flipped backwards with her hands placed firmly on the ground- this Deathstalker was smarter than she could think of one being, though, so when her feet went up in the air it saw an opportunity.

Its claw diverted the path it was on, and before too long, Ruby felt nothing but blistering pain come from one of her legs. Weiss and Nora both screamed in horror, Katie, on the cliff, was sobbing into her hands while Glynda held her back, and Yang...was feeling the slightest amount of sorrow.

Ruby's leg had been taken off at the knee, nothing bit scattering petals indicating what had happened, and in a moment of searing pain Ruby collapsed unconscious.

(^^^^^^)

The entire thing blurred for Katie; she watched as Nora hoisted the half-dead Ruby over her shoulders while the others peppered the Deathstalker with bullets and Dust- eventually he thing escaped and died not too long later through blood loss...as though those things even have blood. It must have been an overload of pain or something like that, because no way did what Ruby performed, only cause _blood loss_.

It was an insult to Ruby's skills; undoubtedly all the hard training and effort she's been putting in over the years since her death, and all it leads to was 'death by blood loss' and loss of one of her legs? It was a disgrace! The doctors here did nothing to treat the obviously missing leg, the nurses hadn't changed her IV drip yet...no wonder Ruby was angry at the world. thankfully she'd passed the initiation, if only barely, and Ozpin had granted the girl a team- with Ruby herself as team leader!

She'd heard the rest of the people with her took out a Nevermore, but that was irrelevant.

Though Katie did wonder on how, exactly, Ruby would continue on as a Huntress, if she couldn't walk with one leg had no weapon.

"How is she?"

Katie turned to the wizened voice that penetrated her thoughts, and noticed Miss Glynda Goodwitch standing there, a worried look on her face and the crop she usually brought with her clenched tightly. The woman's knuckles were white, no doubt showing the frustration and anger she felt at the situation.

Katie turned back in her seat, eyes directly on Ruby and hoping that she'd wake up- the loss of a limb by a Grimm was considered dangerous; more so than the loss of a limb by a normal human. Apparently the loss by a Grimm made it that much more shocking, as Grimm aren't exactly natural in this world- they were brought about by Man's hatred and fears, so with a Grimm being the cause of the severance it shocked instincts that told you 'this shouldn't happen'. Undoubtedly the girl would be feeling phantom pains and feelings of unease now that she was one leg shorter.

"She hasn't moved. Her breathing evened out an hour ago, but other than that...nothing." Her eyes had closed, not allowing the situation to cause the awaiting tears to fall; she could be strong for the girl that was strong for her, she could and she would. She heard the telltale sound of a chair being scraped across the ground, before Glynda could be seen in her peripherals. The woman simply, ungracefully, flopped down and sighed heavily.

It was a full minute before they heard anything; and then Glynda decided to let it all out- a tear streaked down her cheek, and dripped form her chin. "She's my goddaughter, you know?" Another tear fell down as she lifted one hand and pressed it to her chest; her heartbeat was erratic. "Her mother named me her godmother as soon as she was born; I still don't know why, though...we barely saw eye-to-eye on anything."

Katie simply stayed silent; the woman was crying, and despite the fact that she was angered at her for not helping Ruby during her childhood, it was rude of her to not listen to the whole story.

Glynda sniffled, her glasses fogging up slightly due to the tears being sizzled out of existence by her magic. "If she knew, she'd hate me for not being there...even if it wasn't my choice." Katie's head shot up surprised and her eyes landed on Glynda's shaky form. "She...I was told she died at the age of four by Taiyang, her biological father." She turned her head to Katie, who was watching one of the tears drip down her left cheek. "You ever met him?" As Katie shook her head, Glynda chuckled- though it was humorous and raspy, laden with tears. "Good, I hope you never do; I used to think he was a decent man until Summer passed...now he's nothing but a snake."

Katie simply sighed; she knew what Yang was like, but if she was raised by Taiyang...she would probably end up putting the man's head through a wall. "I've met the other one, Yang; not at all very nice."

Glynda chuckled, this time some humour evident. "Yes, I saw the fight on the Bullhead. As soon as I saw Ruby start flickering around, Yang was in for a world of hurt." Then all went quiet for another minute, neither one seeing the other wipe their faces to remove tears. "I'm proud of her."

Without a missing beat, Katie replied. "So am I; she's come so far...been through so much." Her hand grasped Ruby's limp one, and Katie smiled slightly feeling the instinctual move of Ruby's fingers curling around hers. The girl, even when asleep, sought out her attention- it was endearing, and made Katie feel wanted.

It was then an unwanted appearance made itself known; blonde locks could be seen when they turned their heads to the door which was knocked on- Yang was peaking her head through. Glynda wiped her face of all emotion, using magic to conceal the tear lines. Katie just glared, still wiping her eyes of tears that had been falling for the last four hours, since Ruby was put in here. Yang was someone she loathed, and that was something spectacular considering Katie had never felt some form of negative emotion centred on anyone for years. She found it especially hard to hate someone, but Yang was probably an exception to it.

"Uh...we didn't know you two were here..."

Glynda looked at the confused Xiao-Long with a risen eyebrow. "'We'?"

At that, Weiss and Blake somewhat comically peered their heads around the doorway, above and below Yang respectively. It was then Weiss wobbled, before throwing her arms out in an effort to stop her descent towards the ground- she grabbed onto Yang, the closest thing there, and both fell towards Blake. the poor woman was unfortunately left with no other way out of it, and all three ended up in a pile of bodies, limbs, and pained shouts which soon turned to harsh whispers after a passing nurse 'shushed ' them.

"Ah..." I mean, what do you say to practically becoming a witness to a three-way cat fight? Well, Blake was simply trying to shuffle her way out from beneath the two on top of her, but somehow her hand touched one of Yang's breasts, and in a fit of rage they broke out into fights- the passing nurses just palmed their heads and walked past, hoping to not be seen with them near her. In Weiss' defense she was dragged into it by Yang, who thought it was her who had touched her in that place, and wanted nothing more than for someone to stop the fight. Katie turned her head to Glynda, who was watching on impassively with small tick marks showing on her head. "Should we stop them?"

As soon as Yang's hair caught fire and her eyes went red, the other two flipped out their weapons and a practical three-way battle royal broke out in a hospital; some patients had wheeled their ways out of their rooms to see, with exasperated nursing staff watching on with growing sweatdrops.

Glynda stood up, but was stopped by a weak hand gripping her wrist. She followed the hand with her eyes, trailing up the arm until her eyes met silver.

"Y-You're awake?"

Ruby lifted her other hand to her lips and made a 'shush' motion, before turning back to the fight. "This is...entertaining, ain't it?" when Yang got body slammed through a wall thanks to Weiss and Blake tag-teaming, she chuckled, before coughing slightly; she hadn't been in here long, but her throat was as dry as a desert. Glynda didn't look entertained at all, and simply huffed while hiding a smile that Ruby was finally awake.

Katie's face enveloped Ruby's vision, before a glass of water was pressed to her lips and, as the fighting raged on in the background, she took greedy yet helping gulps of the liquid. Only when it was emptied of its contents did Ruby lean back with a sigh. Katie then decided now was a good time to scold the girl for her actions, but then remembered the fact that Ruby was practically crippled, and thus...well, shit happens. She sighed, leaning back in her chair while gripping one of Ruby's hands, deciding that the red head had been through enough punishment.

"Well, this is the life; live entertainment, wife by my side, blonde at the edge of my bed." She chuckled, her face full of mirth. The fight was rather dull now, but still entertaining in its own right- well, as entertaining as watching three grown women fight over something as petty as a 'hand grazing the side of my boob', as Yang had so callously said. The only funny part of this was, actually, when Weiss got really annoyed and slapped the blonde- her hand was infused with aura, which meant Yang went flying through fifty metres of hospital, no doubt shocking the rest of the medical wing. "What else could happen?"

Wordlessly Katie pointed to her severed leg, and Ruby blanched, her skin a shade whiter than what it usually was.

"Oh."

And with that, she passed out again.

(^^^^^^)

 **Chapter is pretty small, but that's mainly because I needed somewhere to end and I couldn't find anywhere good.**

 **Now, notice how Ruby is pretty hyper and sarcastic during this chapter- that's because most of the way through she was tired, and the other half of it was shock over the loss of a limb.**

 **Let me explain- when I'm tired I get pretty drowsy, but when I'm shocked I get sarcastic and hyper; my brother gets all hyper when he's tired, so I basically created her personality for this chapter based off of me and my brother's tendencies.**

 **Also, don't rage because of the lost limb- the next chapter is a time skip, so don't get confused when you see some of the things there. Also, as of now, I'm creating Omakes at the end of each chapter, starting next chapter.**

 **The new weapons will be used in about three chapters or so, so don't worry if you think I'm abandoning the ideas- I'm just waiting for the right moment to use them, is all.**

 **Thanks for all of your cooperation anyway, guys.**


	7. Crack Chapter

**Sorry for the wait, I had to complain with the bank that my college is giving weekly fees to that they can't withhold my money- they disagreed. I may or may not have caused a public scene, and in response the bank finally allowed me my well-earned (Read: lazily earned by sitting there and barely paying attention) money. So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to create…this crack chapter. Not the chapter you were all hoping for, I know, but I can honestly say I'm disappointed in myself with this.**

 **Also, my new-ish story, the RWBY/Fairy Tail crossover, won't be updated as much as this story will be; if only because it needs to be planned out a little more than this has already been. This is just, without me actually thinking about it, becoming a test more than anything else- and I've discovered through my self-evaluation that my planning skills are of short supply. Thus, the crossover was made.**

 **This entire chapter is nothing but a crack chapter, detailing the ups and down of team RWBY plus Katey. Just to tide you all over until the new chapter comes out.**

(^^^^^^)

" _There was a time when I decided to see how much would be too much; how much people I could ignore before it became too much, how much people would ignore me before it became too much…how much hurt I could take before it became too much._

 _In the end…it wasn't enough."_

 _-Rwbybomb21 (Me)-_

(^^^^^^)

 **Ways to Annoy/Scare Katey: 01 The Couch of Doom**

Speed is something of a relativity to Ruby.

She can move faster than the eye could see- could flicker across battlefields in seconds and butcher armies in minutes: no skill, no luck, just pure, unbridled speed. Her speed breached barriers thought otherwise impossible to breach- sound barriers? She smashed them. The speed of a bullet? She made bullets look like snails. The only barrier she wished she could destroy was light. Light was everywhere and everything, and yet she was the only one that seemed to understand that it was nothing, too.

Then there came the idea that speed is only relative to the amount of time you slow down while you seemingly speed up- in her mind, speed was just that. Nothing but movement in any direction, nothing but wind whipping and legs pounding the ground and eyes blurring because of all the adrenaline shooting through her system. _That_ was speed.

To others, though, speed was relative to the amount of time one spent getting there- thus, for some reason, people thought speed semblance users had the ability to control time. Time, when slowed down, became relative to how long one stayed still before it began running as usual. In the case of movement versus time, when you moved and time stayed the way it was, one could be seen blurring. Almost as if you were running faster than possible.

But the thing is…speed wasn't entirely relative to movement, in fact it wasn't even related to time at all- no, speed, in essence, was-

"Hey Ruby, whatcha doin'?"

…ignoring the small distraction, Ruby attempted to gather her thoughts back to her theory of time versus speed. Now, in layman's terms-

"Ruby…you in there?"

…fuck it; she may as well see who was stupid enough to distract her from her inner thoughts. Turning her head from the white wall that occupied the left side of the hospital room she was in, Ruby blanched.

She takes calling the person stupid back; immediately.

"Oh…uh…hey Katey. Just thinking." Scratching the back of her head, Ruby tried not to seem too…sheepish- if she did then Katey would catch on and- now her ear was pinched. Great.

"And…what did you think of? What was it that was _so important_ that you had to _completely_ ignore my last _five minutes_ of attempting to get through to you?"

Ruby was intelligent; she was smart, loyal, everything that made a good wife a, well, _good wife_. But what she wasn't, was tactful. She was nowhere near as tactful as she used to be- nowhere near as tactful as she had ever been, actually. Tact was…something she couldn't understand- why spend ages thinking and strategizing when you could just jump right into the action and get it all over with as soon as possible? It was stupid, but she supposed that, without tact, many people would be dead. So; did that make her a bad person for not employing a good thing?

So, for all her intelligence and lack of tact, Ruby could supply nothing short of the smartest answer she could come up with in this situation; the smartest thing she'd ever said to her kind, endearing, loving, compassionate wife.

"Uh…moving fast?" the pinch lessened. " _Really_ fast; and about time too, yeah!"

Okay, to be honest, she kind of deserved what came next for that crappy lie. What's worse is it wasn't even lying!

The grip around her ear tightened as she received a lecture with the faintly hidden command to not ignore Katey ever again. Then the grip increased its tightness even more, and Ruby took all of her words back. Kind? This was practical torture! Endearing? She'd never be able to look at her the same way again! Loving? This woman was, right now, being evil! Cruel! Horrifyingly effective at getting Ruby to whimper like a kicked puppy, but still evil! And compassionate? Don't even get her started on that! Her wife was nothing but an evil, lying, scumbag of a bit-

"Ruby, why do I feel the need to make you sleep on the couch the next time you're allowed out of here?"

Ruby was breaking right now- what's worse is Katey was actually taking some form of enjoyment at seeing Ruby's face blanch even more. If it did so one more time she'd be whiter than snow. The couch was evil, a dreaded invention devised by the cruellest of scorned women to enact punishment upon their 'better halves' and their probably already dwindling sanity. It was an invention so cruel, so back-breakingly horrific, that when the suggestion was even thought of, many a scorned man and woman would shiver in fright, go to their happy places, and devise the best way to get back at their other halves if it did ever happen. The couch- a hallowing name, is it not? A contraption with no heart, no soul, no comfy mattress to shield her back from the springs and rickety wooden frame.

"You wouldn't." It was but a whisper, but Katey could still hear it, what with her leaning over Ruby's now stock still form with eyes narrowed and her breath against Ruby's left ear.

"I would."

"I-It's evil! It's a monster!"

Katey merely rolled her eyes, staring at Ruby's form in nothing but curiosity and no short amount of confusion. It was just a couch, what could be so bad about it?

"It can't be that bad, stop exaggerating."

Ruby looked affronted; exaggerating? The thing was an evil- then, a thought. A nasty thought, but if Katey thought this was exaggerating, then there was no harm in trying it out, was there? She may be a sadist, but this was something she'd never wish on anyone- except Katey, because she was being all 'oh woe is you little pitiful creature'. So, no harm in her 'toughing it out' on the couch instead of next to her, was there?

"Katey- I have a deal for you."

No, there was no issue with daring her humble wife to walk the walk of shame like some sort of death row inmate heading to the chair.

"A deal?"

Ruby smirked evilly- a look Katey knew too well and did not like one bit- even before her, to Katey, drastic chance, Ruby always was able to produce that smirk. It was a smirk that said 'you're gonna be in trouble now'.

"Yes, a deal." She leaned forward form her still position, folding her hands under her chin with the smirk growing wider by the word. "I dare you to sleep on the couch tonight; and, if you can manage to sleep more than three hours without screaming in terror then you win."

"And I win…?"

Ruby waved her hand as though it didn't matter, before placing the appendage on the side of her left cheek. The smirk hadn't gone yet- in fact, it only grew. "Whatever you want that's within my power to give."

Katey lifted an immaculate black eyebrow at that; anything? Well, this was an easy win. "And what do you win if I lose?"

"Satisfaction."

Learning that questioning Ruby brought more questions than any answers the girl could ever give her, Katey decided to just leave it at that, smirk, and walk away.

Ruby began cackling madly while clutching her sides; this was an easy win. Satisfaction was hers!

(^^^^^^)

The next morning Katey walked in, a blankness never seen before in her eyes and her mouth set in a thin line- she looked dead to the world, and the bags beneath her eyes didn't help either.

Ruby took one look and giggled madly as Katey began breaking down crying and muttering about 'Evil couches' and 'never again' over and over.

To Blake it was hilarious- another sufferer of the evil couch! Huzzah! Ruby was now someone she needed to keep an eye on, because if the couch was something they had in common, what else could be? She spotted a little black book beneath Ruby's pillow, and internally squealed. Ruby liked Ninjas of Love as well!? Could this day get any better?

To Weiss this was the most humbling thing she's ever seen- this cruel side to Ruby was nothing new if what she did to the Deathstalker during Initiation was anything to go by, but this showed her that everyone could be affected by some sort of cruelty. In Ruby case, it was the couch, something that, judging by Katey's reaction, Weiss wanted nothing to do with.

Yang was nowhere to be seen- too busy eyeing up the rest of the boys around Beacon and picking on a certain Vomit Boy.

To Ruby, it was simply a good old, rather productive, Tuesday.

(^^^^^^)

 **02 The Castle**

Five back breaking hours. Five fucking hours, of nothing but building and now they got it down! Finally! Five hours, five cruel, but rather slow, hours had passed by since the construction of this particular object, and nothing short of a miracle could bring their spirits down now!

Then, Nora decided to crush their work by flying through the window of their room.

The castle made of playing cards was in jeopardy damn it! It needed saving! Katey looked at Ruby, who looked back, and both mentally decided they'd stop Nora from crushing their masterpiece by any means possible.

Any. Means.

Katey, with her limited combat experience form attending barely two years of Signal, decided that a head on approach wasn't the smartest thing to combat the flying Nora heading towards Ruby and Katey's baby. Yes, this thing may as well be their child with how much attention and care they put into it.

Grabbing a nearby chair and snapping one of the legs off, Katey charged at Nora and, at the last second, spun- the piece of wood smacked against Nora's ribs, and with spittle flying form the girl's mouth, Ruby and Katey both sighed in relief ads the pink themed girl crashed through the wall opposite their masterpiece.

Both sighed and went back to their baby, both cooing as though it were an actual baby and Ruby was wiping her eyes, saying something about 'being so proud'.

Then, a gust of wind broke through the window that Nora had smashed to pieces, and with the wind both saw the castle, probably more detailed than Beacon could ever hope to be, begin to wobble. In desperation Ruby flung herself in front of the castle, ready to die for it if necessary, while Katey grabbed the broken chair and hurled it at the window. Surprisingly the chair got stuck in the hole rather than making it bigger, and to than end the gust of wind died out. Ruby lifted herself form the ground and breathed a sigh of relief while Katey wielded the chair leg as some sort of sword, ready to die for her now-named family.

The door to their room slammed open, and in paranoia Ruby dove in front of her child once more- the wind created by the slam caused the castle to shake, and to both of their horror they realised Yang was the one to walk in.

Sighing again once the castle stopped wobbling, Ruby relaxed and wiped sweat from her brow.

Katey simply burned a hole into Yang's face with her glare- was there anything else that could threaten her family!?

The wall right next to Ruby and their child was smashed to pebble sized pieces as Weiss came flying in next.

Neither could stop the pebble sized piece of wall from crashing into their castle.

A minute later Blake walked in to see Ruby and Katey both wearing a black veil with matching black nondescript dressed, both crying their eyes out while Ruby had her face to Katey's chest. If anything, she'd say they were mourning something. Or someone.

As she approached while the rest of team RWBY was sniffling, all the while Nora was knocked out, she placed a hand on Katey's shoulder. What she saw made her tear up- there, on the ground, surrounded by flowers, was a small pack of playing cards with a picture of what looked like the best card castle she's ever seen. It was exquisite, but ignoring the small part of her that thought this was completely exaggerated, she wiped her own tears from her face and nodded weakly to a grim faced Katey.

Ruby reached a hand out to the card pack, before pulling back as if stung- then she began crying again while Katey patted her back. "H-He was barely a day old!"

"I know, Ruby- but he'd want us to stay strong."

Nodding weakly, Ruby wiped her face clean of tears and whispered. "Yeah, yeah; I know. We gotta be strong."

Glynda Goodwitch just rolled her eyes as she watched over the screens of her cameras.

Ruby really was something else; though losing that card castle was a shame- it really was quite good.


End file.
